the end of the earth (as I know it)

Greetings from Timbucktu!
Yes it is a real place and somehow I made it here. I just landed after a two day ride on a boat up the Niger River.
It is my first time here in the Sahara, I have met some nice people who just arrived on a traditional salt caravan.
Only French is spoken here, but some speak a little English; so i get by (with a little help from some French Friends).
things have gotten a lot better since a low point on christmas eve; mostly because I was sick.
Now i plan to relax and explore since i found a nice family to stay with;
hard to type on this French keyboard, so thats all for now.
Merry christmas to everyone; i wanted to call but could not
love, Forest

travels

So I’m off and moving on my travels. My friend Thomas from Humboldt flew in on the 9th and I’ve had a good time showing him around. We went to see the slave castles where slaves were held until ships came to take them to America. Then we found the nicest beach either of us had ever been to. White sand, warm water and perfect waves made for a great day of body surfing. I finished my last exam on the 13th and packed up. We left the 15th and headed to the Volta region, where we saw Akasombo dam, which generates most of Ghana’s power. Then we climbed Mt Adukla which proved to be exhausting but gave us really good views. The next day we went to Wli (vuh lee) falls, the tallest in west Africa. This was simply awesome, about 80 meters tall and surrounded by a colony of bats. The next day we planned to take a ferry across the lake, but found that it was not running, so we had to charter a fishing boat. We finally made it in this small motorized canoe, and took two more buses and then a real ferry. The ferry was packed with trucks that were packed with produce to go to the markets in the city. We are now in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. We now head for Mole national park to see elephants and baboons and then to Paga to see crocodiles. Then I part ways with my companions and head into uncharted lands of Burkina Faso and Mali.
Hope everyone is enjoying their vacation.
I will hopefully post again soon
Love, forest.

travels

So I’m off and moving on my travels. My friend Thomas from Humboldt flew in on the 9th and I’ve had a good time showing him around. We went to see the slave castles where slaves were held until ships came to take them to America. Then we found the nicest beach either of us had ever been to. White sand, warm water and perfect waves made for a great day of body surfing. I finished my last exam on the 13th and packed up. We left the 15th and headed to the Volta region, where we saw Akasombo dam, which generates most of Ghana’s power. Then we climbed Mt Adukla which proved to be exhausting but gave us really good views. The next day we went to Wli (vuh lee) falls, the tallest in west Africa. This was simply awesome, about 80 meters tall and surrounded by a colony of bats. The next day we planned to take a ferry across the lake, but found that it was not running, so we had to charter a fishing boat. We finally made it in this small motorized canoe, and took two more buses and then a real ferry. The ferry was packed with trucks that were packed with produce to go to the markets in the city. We are now in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. We now head for Mole national park to see elephants and baboons and then to Paga to see crocodiles. Then I part ways with my companions and head into uncharted lands of Burkina Faso and Mali.
Hope everyone is enjoying their vacation.
I will hopefully post again soon
Love, forest.

elections

The presidential elections happened here yesterday. It happens in Ghana every 4 years like the U.S. and there are 2 main parties, the NDC and NPP. The lines to vote were huge; most people had to wait in line for about 3 hours. The election four years ago provoked some civil unrest, apparently a few people were killed. So things are a bit tense here, but there is a strong desire for peace. They closed the borders for a few days so no one could sneak in a try to vote. For the past few weeks there has been heavy campaigning, including a parades of people playing instruments, waving flags and doing push-ups.
I finish finals on dec.13, and I will take off for northern Ghana then Burkina Faso and Mali. From there I may go to Senegal. I am trying to plan my trip now, it will be tough because those countries are French speaking. I should get to see some amazing cultures and wildlife though.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Love, Forest

Thanksgiving

The international program here put on a Thanksgiving dinner for the foreign students, complete with everything we expected plus Ghanaian dishes. It was nice to get a taste of home.
Exams here are drawn out over a month, so I have been taking an exam a week. The exams here are usually 100% of the grade, which makes it a little intense. All of mine have been essay based, and I had a pretty good idea what would be on them, so I think I did well. I will end on Dec. 13 and then I will get to travel to a national park in the north to see baboons and elephants. Then, I may continue on to Burkina Faso and Mali.
Me and some friends played some disk golf around campus recently. Some Ghanaians are interested, some are scared, some are just angry about us playing.
Everything here is going well. About 3/4 of the students are going home after this semester is over, only the true adventurers will remain.
I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and know that i miss you all.
love, Forest

Ho

Over the weekend three friends and I traveled about 5 hours to the northeast near a town called Ho. (Not to be confused with Hohoe) From there we headed north to a hotel deep in an area of mountainous rainforest. We got up around 5AM to do some exploring. We walked down the dirt road for a while a turned down a trail that looked interesting. We were astounded by how lush and humid it was. We explored about a mile down the trail, having to jump across streams and dodge massive spider webs. Just as we concluded that this was the craziest most remote place we had ever been, two locals came up the trail, warmly greeting us. We were blown away to think that this was home for these people, that they walked these trails everyday. We must have looked crazy to them, just 4 white guys not knowing where they are but excited to be in the rainforest. The locals eventually pointed us to a village, where we decided we should just go where they tell us, and do what most other white people do there. We were sent on another trail, climbing a mountain by way of a trail cut into a cliff. Sweating freely, we enjoyed the amazing views of rolling hills of dense rainforest. We finally made it to the top, where large metal cross had been erected. We took a break there for a few hours and ate lunch. From there we went to a village where a festival was happening with lots of singing and dancing. There we met a guy who said he would led us to a nearby waterfall. We headed down a new trail for about two miles until we found it. We took a swim and a break, enjoyed the unusually strong wind that came off of the waterfall. We then hiked back to the village, where we hired the most beat up car I have ever seen to take us back to the hotel. We passed out exhausted, and headed home the next day. It was one of the best times I have had in Ghana.
Other than that, class are ending, Finals take a month here so I have some time to relax. Hope everyone else is enjoying life too.
Love, Forest

benin and togo

I have just returned from a trip to Togo and Benin, the two countries directly east of Ghana. It was my first time outside of Ghana, and also my first time in a place the spoke French instead of English. The trip was organized by the sociology dept. but everyone was allowed to go. We left on Thursday, 4 hours late (typical for Ghana, some call it living on “Ghanaian Time”), crossed Togo after a hassle at the border, and arrived very late at the dorms at a Benin college. After watching the sun rise and getting a couple hours sleep, we headed to northern Benin to visit a museum. There we saw some gruesome artifacts left over from tribal wars, including a throne mounted on human skulls. We then headed back to the dorms. The next day we took boats out to a village of 30,000 people all living on houses built on stilts over the water. All of the children came to see us and beg for money in small open canoes. After that the tour went back to Ghana, but a friend and I got off in Togo near the Togo-Ghana border. We got a cheap hotel right on the beach and spent the night.
The next day we walked along the beach, watching groups of 20-30 people pull enormous fishing nets out of the ocean. We then met this goofy looking rasta guy out for a tan in a speedo. After talking to him for a few minutes of talking he invited us to his house to give my friend his secret hair treatment. We then walked around the city of Lome, passing through yet another insane market. This one was particularly crazy since everyone was speaking French and occasionally a motorcycle would zoom through the crowd.
We then went to the rasta’s house where I watched as he applied avocado, egg yolk and coffee powder to my friends hair. The rasta was very insistent that we keep it a secret, so don’t tell anyone. After that he took us to his village where we met dozens of his friends and relatives. After walking around to various villages for about 4 hours, it was time to head home. From the village we took a taxi with 8 people-4 in the back, 2 in the passenger’s seat, and two in the driver’ seat, back to the city. From there we took a “taximoto” or motorcycle taxi back to the border. Taximotos must be the most dangerous thing I have ever seen. 2-3 people on a motorbike without helmets zooming around traffic with no laws on roads that are littered with potholes and debris. Luckily, we made it back to campus alive.
Sorry I haven’t been posting, the internet here doesn’t let me a lot of the time, which is frustrating.
Wish everyone well
-Forest

29 sept.

School is in full swing now, I am taking 5 geography classes and a xylophone class. I have also gotten an internship with a group called A Rocha, Ghana. They are a christen environmental organization with chapters around the world. Right now they are having me design a calender for them, which is a bit boring and tedious. Hopefully in the future I will be able to help with more interesting projects, like planting fruit trees on school campuses.
We threw a big party for a fellow students birthday, it gave us the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the other Ghanaians in our building. I live in an all male dorm, americans take up about half of one of the 6 stories. We just discovered that the floor has a kitchen, but a few guys are living in there since there are not enough rooms available.
I have been thinking about what to do for my 6 week winter break, I think I will travel to Senegal with two of my friends from Santa Barbara. That involves traveling through some french speaking muslim countries, which would be new and interesting.
Everything else is working out fine, It is nice to be getting to know how things work around here.
love, Forest

cape coast

This past weekend the EAP group that I am in that includes about 50 other Americans traveled four hours to the west to the medium sized city of Cape Coast. An annual festival was being held there. The first day there was a sacrificing of a bull. We participated in a crowd that ran through the streets chasing the bull as a man lead it by a rope. The local chief then arrived to slit the bull’s throat. The crowd was too dense to get a good view, but just being in the crowd was exciting enough. Later that day we traveled to a place with a rope bridge above the canopy of a rainforest. After scaring those who were scared of heights, we headed back into town. We stayed at a nice hotel (hot showers and air conditioning, unheard of!) and later explored the city by night, sampling the local palm wine and cocoa liqueur. Saturday was the main festival, which consisted of an all day parade. Local chiefs were carried in coffin shaped chairs on the heads of servants. Large drugs and all kinds of instruments were being played and everyone was dancing. The streets were packed with people, and the mile long parade inched along slowly. We had been warned that pickpockets were rampant. When one was reaching in my back pocket, he was caught by other Ghanaians, who surrounded him and beat him, eventually chasing him out of the parade. After we had had enough, we went swimming in the ocean. The temperature was perfect, but there was garbage everywhere. The next day we headed back to Accra exhausted.
I now feel like I know what is going on with my classes, and everything is falling into place. I have been playing chess with another American, which is nice since I have not really had good competition in years.
One of my favorite parts of being in Ghana has been playing with children.
That’s all for now, leave me comments of what has been going on in your life, or email me.
Love, Forest.

trips

Since there was no school the first week due to a teachers strike, I went on a 5 day trip with two of my friends. Our main destination was Bui national park, which is in the Northwest Region of Ghana. It took us two days of riding buses to get there. One of the highlights was getting to ride on top of a bus through rural roads, getting a good view of the passing scenery. We arrived, and found out that we had to hire an armed guard to escort us around the park. Poachers are dangerous I guess. So we camped on a ridge and got eaten by biting flies, and pitched our tent. That night we encountered a large storm, soaking us and all of our possessions. Our guard, somehow survived without a tent. The next day we hiked our soggy butts a few miles to a village, where we were taken in and fed fufu by the fire. We met a man who told us how the upcoming dam construction was forcing the whole village to move, with a government compensation of only 300 cedi. After listening to his story, we went on a canoe ride in the river, seeing birds and bugs and other wildlife. The are usually hippos there, but not at this time of year. We left at 5AM the next morning, and later arrived at a monkey sanctuary. There we toured the rainforest filled with monkeys and got to feed them. We entered a village, and got swept up in a local funeral celebration. Funerals here are big events with much celebration. We donated a few cedi to the believed family and met everyone important in the village including the chief. The trip continued with exploring waterfalls and bat caves.

School has finally begun, I think my classes will be interesting, but it is hard to understand the professors sometimes

Hope everyone is well

Love, Forest

Ps I hope to post pictures soon.

First Day of School

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it is nice to know that I have so many loving people supporting me.
My birthday included some traditional hazing, an event called ponding, in which everyone throws water at you out of a bucket. It was pretty fun. I reieved a few gifts of massages and candy, and got to go to Accra's enourmous soccer stadium to watch a game. All in all it was a very good birthday.
School starts today, even though most classes have not even announced when they will take place. In ghana most people dress semi-formally to go to class, so I have done the same, which is different than I am used to.
Some of my friends have been getting robbed, one at tazer-point and one from his room while he was sleeping. So we all have to be on our toes.
I am taking 5 geography calsses and an intro to drumming class. The geography classes include Tourism, rural resource development, hydrology, and african geography. They all sound pretty interesting.
Keep posting comments, it helps to know that someone is out there reading this.
love, forest

august 18

I have been moved into Legon Hall, which I believe is the worst dorm on campus. Everything is dirty, the bathroom is disgusting, and the water is only on 40% of the time. Both of the doors in my room are broken. It seems like everything I buy here either does not work or breaks quickly. But I'm not complaining, If I wanted life to be easy I would not have come here.
On a brighter note, my roomie and I went to a nightclub where someone was shooting a music video, and insisted that they needed more white people. So keep an eye on MTV.
I'm starting to get better at soccer. It's not that i was particularly bad, it's just that everyone else is really good. We also visited the botanical gardens on campus, saw really intesting plants and really vicious ants.
Everything else is going good, my spirits are high, hope everyone else is enjoying thier life too.
love, Forest

august 13

Hello again from Ghana. I am still doing well, still getting used to the unorganized, chaotic manner of Ghana. Some friends and I traveled by tro-tro to a fishing village two hours west of Accra called Winneba. On the way, while trying to push through a crowd to get on a bus, I suddenly felt hands in both my pockets and in by backpack. I quickly brushed the hands away and scrabbled onto the bus, only to realize my cell phone was gone. It was less of a pickpocketing and more of a straight-up robbery. The others I was with had narrowly avoided losing their wallets. About 30 seconds later someone leaned into the bus and stole a white box and then took off. It must have been a group of thieves stealing from everyone. I tried not to let it bother me and took it as a lesson in economic disparities and carelessness. When we finally got to the village, we check into a nice touristy hotel and headed to the beach. It was a palm lined paradise, with warm water and sandy beaches. The ground was covered in strange glowing bugs, and we saw crabs and jellyfish too. The next day more friends arrived and we spent most of the day at the beach. We played Frisbee with the local children, did some body surfing, and enjoyed the sun. A group of about 40 people were nearby hauling in a fishing net that was about half a mile long. After mush work, we got the net to shore. It contained jellyfish, eels, snakes, octopi, crabs, and all sorts of other sea creatures. Later we headed into town and saw where they were selling all of these fish, it all looked disgusting to us. We then headed back to school, most of us with substantial sunburn.
I am now trying to register for class, which is very frustrating, confusing, and time consuming. I am taking a beginning drum class and a few geography classes. You can buy beautiful medium size drums here for about $40.
Some of the other Americans have gotten malaria, but luckily I have stayed healthy. Living here involves a huge amount of walking and stair climbing.
They have moved me into the worst dorm on campus. It rarely has running water and most people do laundry and take showers out a bucket. It seems that the working decorative fountains around campus are mocking us. All is well though, I am adapting.
Hope everyone is doing fine, feel free to either leave comments or email me at forest.carter@gmail.com
Love, Forest

first ten days

Greetings from ghana. So far I have been living in an international student hostel (ISH) with mostly other californians and some from indiana. Our group of about 50 has been attending orientation lectures and traveling to nearby accra. We definitely stand out as "obrunies"(foreigners). The flight here lasted about 20 hours, and from there we took a bus to the campus. As obvious wealthy foreigners we are constantly getting hustled for money; I sometimes feel like I am a walking wallet. On sunday 7/27 we went to the beach. There were numerous bars and restaurants there, as well as arts and crafts. The temperature of the ocean here is the warmest I have ever felt, but the ocean and beach are covered in trash. The garbage disposal system seems inadequate everywhere here. I brought a frisbee to the beach, and met some locals who wanted to play, I could tell that frisbees and americans were novelties to them. The next 5 days were filled with lectures on aspects of ghana (economic political historical) and a traditional african drum and dancing class. I have been spending most of my time with other americans, as it will take some time to bridge the cultural gap to befriend ghanaians. I have been fairly healthy so far; one morning I woke up with two bug bites on my neck and a very swollen upper lip. I went to the doctor who said it may be bed bugs, so I sprayed my bed with Raid, no more bites. The money system here is in cedis and pesoways. one cedi equals about 1 dollar and a pesoway about one penny, which makes thinking about money fairly easy. Local food here is cheap, I have been eating food from vendors on campus for usually about one cedi. Ghanaian food consists of a lot of fried rice, cabbage, fried plantains (like bananas, very delicious) fish and chicken. Most locals eat fufu, which is some sort of dough with fish sauce over it and chicken or fish on top. I did not like it because I don't like fish. There is plenty of mango coconut banana and pineapple for very cheap everywhere.
The customs here take some getting used to. The handshake consists of a shake, a grip, and then snapping your fingers off of the other persons middle finger. The left hand is seen as the dirty hand here, one must not shake, wave or eat with it. Making a fist and waggling your thumb at someone is equivalent to giving them the finger.
The dorms I have been staying at is 4 stories high with an open air hallway and central courtyard. The showers have no hot water, which is a little rough. The power goes out for a few hours every few days. Today I am leaving the hostel and moving into the larger dorms, which has even less comforts.
The weather here is hot and humid. This is the wet season, so it rains about every other day. This is nice though, it is a warm rain.
The city of Accra is a massive free for all. Everyone drives fast and crazy, not stopping or slowing down for anyone. People are also always honking their horn. Most shopping is done in outdoor markets, each stall having random things from clothing and electronics to tires and tvs. Almost everything is bartered for which can be both fun and annoying. Although english is the dominant language, most ghanians speak Twi to each other. This leads to lots of talking and laughing at the foreigners who cant understand. The english here is much different, talking can be tedious. I have adopted a slight ghanaian accent when talking to them, which can make it easier. Most people get around here in tro-tros, which are vans that seat about 20 and run routes like buses. These usually only cost about 20-50 cents. taxis are more comfortable, costing about 2-6 dollars depending on distance.
Last weekend we took a trip to the city of kumasi, about 6 hours by bus to the north. The rainforests and plants there were very different and lush. There, we went to visit a large lake and met a local chief. In northern ghana the king still has more power than the president; we got to visit an old palace. On the way we stopped at 3 craft villages which sold crafts and fabrics. We were swarmed by locals trying to sell us trinkets and jewelry. I can't decide if giving these people money is good since it helps them out or bad because I am supporting generic and mass produced tourism. I did buy a really nice sounding xylophone. I have been playing some soccer but i am not very good compared to most locals.
The locals are very friendly, but a lot of the time they only want you to buy something or help them out in some way. I bought a cell phone but international calls are expensive.
That’s all for now, hope everyone is doing well and feels motivated to get out there and travel
Much love - Forest

Pre-Departure

Hello everyone,
I am using this blog to keep everyone who is interested informed on my year abroad in Ghana. Feel free to share this site with anyone who is interested.

A little background on this trip
I decided to go last November, mostly since I had the itch to travel. Through UC Santa Barbara's Education Abroad Program, I saw an opportunity to travel while staying in school. I considered going to Australia, but in the end decided that it wasn't different enough from the U.S. I choose Ghana for several reasons:
A. I wanted to witness firsthand how people live in less developed countries.
B. I wanted to experience being a racial minority.
C. Everyone I talked to and everything I read told me that Ghana has the world's friendliest people.
D. Africa seems like the most interesting continent because of the economic, political, social and environmental struggles going on there.
E. I wanted to go outside my comfort zone.

I am preparing to leave on 7/25, when I will fly from San Fransisco to Amsterdam to Accra, Ghana. I will be attending the University of Ghana at Legon, which is near Accra, Ghana's capital.

I will try to post every week or two, and hopefully photos also. Feel free to post comments.